The Seleukid past in Asia Minor (281-223 BC)

Abstract On 23 Dystros, year 103 SE (2rn/9), Antiochos III, on theeve of his eastern expedition, sent a 7rpoa:;ayµ,a to Zeuxis, the governor of cis-Tauric Asia. The king appointed his chamberlain, Nikanor, ‘high-priest of all the shrines in all the land beyond the Taurus’, at Nikanor’s own request. In addition, ‘we thought necessary that Nikanor should be in charge of the sanctuaries, and that their revenues and the other matters should be administered by him, just as under our grandfather by Dion’; furthermore, Nikanor was to be mentioned ‘in the contracts and the other documents for which it is usual’.1 Zeuxis duly passed on the instructions: a copy was found in northern Mysia; Nikanor is named as ‘high-priest’ in documents from Amyzon and Xanthos.2 The prostagma apparently belongs to ‘the continuing administrative work ... that the king routinely dealt with, while on major campaigns, to keep the empire ticking over’.3 But in spite of its mundane appearance, the prostagma on Nikanor deserves closer attention, for it is based on arresting Seleukid assumptions about the geography and history of Asia Minor.